Radio receiver

Abstract

A radio receiver comprising: an antenna for receiving a radio frequency signal amplitude modulated with an audio frequency signal; a digitizer for periodically sampling the radio frequency signal and generating a digital reception signal representative of the amplitude of the radio frequency signal; and a demodulator for demodulating the digital reception signal to generate a representation of the audio frequency signal.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A radio receiver, configured for operation in a radio system in which a plurality of radio channels  are transmitted at frequencies spaced apart by a predetermined channel spacing, the radio receiver comprising:
 an antenna configured to receive a radio frequency signal amplitude modulated with an audio frequency signal; 
 a digitiser configured to sample the radio frequency signal and to generate a digital reception signal representative of the amplitude of the radio frequency signal; 
 a demodulator configured to demodulate the digital reception signal to generate a representation of the audio frequency signal, wherein the demodulator comprises a local oscillator configured to generate a first local oscillator signal at a reception frequency of the radio receiver, a first mixer configured to mix the first local oscillator signal with the digital reception signal to form a first demodulated signal, and a second mixer configured to mix a second local oscillator signal with the digital reception signal to form a second demodulated signal, wherein the second local oscillator signal is at the reception frequency of the radio receiver and having a quadrature phase relationship with the first local oscillator signal, wherein the demodulator further comprises a filter configured to filter the demodulated signals to thereby generate first and second filtered demodulated signals, the filter having a peak response in the region of the reception frequency of the radio receiver and having nulls in its response in a region of frequencies spaced apart from the reception frequency of the radio receiver by the predetermined channel spacing; and 
 a beat cancellation device configured to form a beat-cancelled signal by processing the first filtered demodulated signal and/or and the second filtered demodulated signal to at least partially cancel from at least one of the first filtered demodulated signal and/or and the second filtered demodulated signal a beat frequency resulting from the mixing of the local oscillator signals with the digital reception signal, 
 wherein the radio receiver is configured for operation in a radio system in which a plurality of radio channels are transmitted at frequencies spaced apart by a predetermined channel spacing, and the demodulator further comprises a filter configured to filter the first demodulated signal, the filter having a peak response in the region of the reception frequency of the receiver and having nulls in its response in a region of frequencies spaced apart from the reception frequency of the receiver by a channel spacing. 
 
     
     
       2. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the digital reception signal is a single-bit signal. 
     
     
       3. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 2 , wherein the digitiser comprises a single-bit digitiser. 
     
     
       4. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 2 , wherein the digitiser comprises a sigma-delta modulator. 
     
     
       5. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the first local oscillator signal is a single-bit signal. 
     
     
       6. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein the first mixer comprises an exclusive OR gate having two inputs and configured to receive the digital reception signal at one of its inputs and the first local oscillator signal at the other of its inputs. 
     
     
       7. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 1 , further comprising a user input device for input of a user reception frequency, and a local oscillator controller responsive to the user input device for controlling the local oscillator to generate the first local oscillator signal at the user reception frequency. 
     
     
       8. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the second local oscillator signal is generated by the local oscillator. 
     
     
       9. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the beat cancellation device is configured to repeatedly perform:
 determining a modulus of the first filtered demodulated signal; 
 determining a modulus of the second filtered demodulated signal; 
 comparing the modulus of the first filtered demodulated signal with the modulus of the second filtered demodulated signal; 
 determining a quotient by dividing the greater lesser of the moduli of the first filtered demodulated signal and the second filtered demodulated signal by the lesser greater of the moduli of the first filtered demodulated signal and the second filtered demodulated signal; 
 determining a cancellation factor having the value of the reciprocal of the cosine of the arctangent of the quotient; and 
 forming the beat-cancelled signal by multiplying one of the first and second filtered demodulated signals by the cancellation factor. 
 
     
     
       10. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 9 , wherein said one of the first and second filtered demodulated signals multiplied by the cancellation factor is the one of the first and second filtered demodulated signals having the greater magnitude. 
     
     
       11. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 9 , wherein determining the cancellation factor having the value of the reciprocal of the cosine of the arctangent of the quotient comprises retrieving from a stored look-up table the cancellation factor corresponding to the determined quotient. 
     
     
       12. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the beat cancellation device comprises is part of a digital processor configured to form the beat-cancelled signal. 
     
     
       13. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 1 , further comprising a user input device configured for user selection of one of a plurality of reception frequencies spaced apart by the predetermined channel spacing. 
     
     
       14. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the digitiser is configured to periodically sample the radio frequency signal at more than twice the reception frequency of the radio receiver. 
     
     
       15. A radio receiver for operation in a radio system in which a plurality of radio channels are transmitted at frequencies spaced apart by a predetermined channel spacing, the radio receiver comprising:
 an antenna for receiving a radio frequency signal; 
 a demodulator for demodulating a signal derived from the radio frequency signal to form a demodulated signal; and 
 a filter for filtering the demodulated signal, the filter having a peak response in a region of a reception frequency and having nulls in its response in a region of frequencies spaced apart from the reception frequency by the predetermined channel spacing, and the filter being configured to decimate the demodulated signal in hardware, and being configured to filter the decimated signal in software at an audio sample rate. 
 
     
     
       16. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 15 , wherein the radio frequency signal is amplitude modulated with an audio frequency signal. 
     
     
       17. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 15 , further comprising a digitiser for periodically sampling the radio frequency signal and generating as a digital reception signal representative of the amplitude of the radio frequency signal. 
     
     
       18. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the digitiser comprises a single-bit digitiser. 
     
     
       19. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the digitiser comprises a sigma-delta modulator. 
     
     
       20. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the demodulator comprises a local oscillator configured to generate a first local oscillator signal at the reception frequency of the radio receiver, and a mixer configured to mix the first local oscillator signal with the digital reception signal to form a first demodulated signal. 
     
     
       21. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 20 , wherein the first local oscillator signal is a single-bit signal. 
     
     
       22. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 21 , wherein the mixer comprises an exclusive OR gate having two inputs and configured to receive the digital reception signal at one of its inputs and the first local oscillator signal at the other of its inputs. 
     
     
       23. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 20 , further comprising a user input device for input of a user reception frequency, and a local oscillator controller responsive to the user input device and configured to control the local oscillator to generate the first local oscillator signal at the user reception frequency. 
     
     
       24. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 23 , wherein the user input device is configured to receive an input selecting one of the plurality of radio channels and the local oscillator controller is configured to, on the basis of the selected channel, cause the local oscillator to generate the first local oscillator signal at one of the frequencies spaced apart by the predetermined channel spacing. 
     
     
       25. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 15 , wherein the attenuation of the filter at frequencies spaced above and below the reception frequency by the predetermined channel spacing is more than 10 8  times the attenuation of the filter at the reception frequency. 
     
     
       26. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 15 , wherein the attenuation of the filter at frequencies spaced above and below the reception frequency by the predetermined channel spacing is more than 10 11  times the attenuation of the filter at the reception frequency. 
     
     
       27. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 15 , wherein the predetermined channel spacing is 8.820 kHz. 
     
     
       28. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 15 , wherein the filter comprises a cascaded integrator comb filter. 
     
     
       29. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 15 , wherein the filter is a third-order filter. 
     
     
       30. A radio receiver as claimed in  claim 15 , wherein the audio sample rate is 44.1 kHz. 
     
     
       31. A method for cancelling a beat frequency use in a radio receiver configured to receive a radio signal, forming a first demodulated signal by mixing a signal derived from the received radio signal with a first local oscillator signal, and forming a second demodulated signal by mixing the signal derived from the received radio signal with a second local oscillator signal having a quadrature relationship with the first local oscillator signal, the method comprising repeatedly performing:
 determining the modulus of the first demodulated signal; 
 determining the modulus of the second demodulated signal; 
 comparing the modulus of the first demodulated signal with the modulus of the second demodulated signal; 
 determining a quotient by dividing the greater lesser of the moduli of the first demodulated signal and the second demodulated signal by the lesser greater of the moduli of the first demodulated signal and the second demodulated signal; 
 determining a cancellation factor having the value of the reciprocal of the cosine of the arctangent of the quotient; and forming a beat-cancelled signal by multiplying one of the first and second demodulated signals by the cancellation factor. 
 
     
     
       32. A method as claimed in  claim 31 , wherein determining the cancellation factor comprises retrieving from a stored look-up table the cancellation factor corresponding to the quotient. 
     
     
       33. A method as claimed in  claim 31 , wherein the signal derived from the received radio signal is formed at a sampling frequency greater than a reception frequency of the received radio signal. 
     
     
       34. A method as claimed in  claim 31 , wherein the signal derived from the received radio signal is noise-shaped. 
     
     
       35. A method as claimed in  claim 31 , wherein the first and second demodulated signals are radio frequency signals. 
     
     
       36. A method as claimed in  claim 31 , wherein the first and second demodulated signals are intermediate frequency signals. 
     
     
       37. A method as claimed in  claim 31 , wherein the first and second local oscillator signals are single-bit signals and the method further comprises forming first and second single-bit demodulation signals by mixing the signal derived from the received radio signal with the first and second single-bit local oscillator signals respectively, and decimating the first and second single-bit demodulation signals to form the first and second demodulated signals. 
     
     
       38. A method as claimed in  claim 31 , wherein the first and second demodulated signals are eight-bit signals. 
     
     
       39. A method as claimed in  claim 31 , wherein said one of the first and second demodulated signals multiplied by the cancellation factor is the one of the first and second demodulated signals having the greater magnitude. 
     
     
       40. A method as claimed in  claim 31 , wherein the method is performed by a beat cancellation device and wherein forming the beat-cancelled signal by multiplying one of the first and second demodulated signals by the cancellation factor comprises a digital processor of the beat cancellation device forming the beat-cancelled signal. 
     
     
       41. A method for use in a radio receiver configured to receive a radio signal, the method comprising:
 forming a first demodulated signal by mixing a signal derived from the received radio signal with a first local oscillator signal;   forming a second demodulated signal by mixing the signal derived from the received radio signal with a second local oscillator signal having a quadrature relationship with the first local oscillator signal;   evaluating a trigonometrical relationship between signals derived from the first and second demodulated signals to determine a beat frequency;   generating a correction factor from a trigonometric function of the determined beat frequency; and   applying the correction factor to the first demodulated signal or the second demodulated signal to thereby cancel the beat frequency from the first demodulated signal or the second demodulated signal.    
     
     
       42. A radio receiver as claimed in claim 20, wherein the local oscillator is further configured to generate a second local oscillator signal at the reception frequency of the radio receiver, and a mixer is configured to mix the second local oscillator signal with the digital reception signal to form a second demodulated signal, wherein the second local oscillator signal has a quadrature phase relationship with the first local oscillator signal.